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Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
 
 
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Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Paperback)

by James M. McPherson (Author) "The hallmark of the United States has been growth ..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)

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Published in 1988 to universal acclaim, this single-volume treatment of the Civil War quickly became recognized as the new standard in its field. James M. McPherson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, impressively combines a brisk writing style with an admirable thoroughness. He covers the military aspects of the war in all of the necessary detail, and also provides a helpful framework describing the complex economic, political, and social forces behind the conflict. Perhaps more than any other book, this one belongs on the bookshelf of every Civil War buff.


From Publishers Weekly

Likely to become the standard one-volume history of our Civil War, this vivifies, with palpable immediacy, scholarly acumen and interpretive skill, events foreshadowing the conflict, the war itself and its basic issue: slavery. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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120 Reviews
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4.7 out of 5 stars (120 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best One-Volume History of the Civil War, Jun 19 2004
By Michael H. Shirley (Tuscola, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Paperback)
It's amusing to read the various reviews that accuse McPherson of bias: they are based on the reviewers' own biases, and certainly not on any real understanding of history. Any one-volume history of this enormously difficult period will necessarily leave things out, but McPherson gets the overall flavor right, and is factually correct. The war was begun by the South, which had been fighting to extend slavery. Any other understanding is simply wrong, and is in fact a wilful misreading of history.
McPherson's writing is excellent, his research thorough, and his conclusions incontrovertable. His treatment of the political conflict leading up to the Civil War is clear, which is no mean feat in itself. This is the one indispensible book on the Civil War.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific One-Volume History, Mar 16 2004
By M. L. Asselin (Bethesda, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Paperback)
I'm just a neophyte when it comes to Civil War history, but after moving to Maryland I thought it was about time I started getting better acquainted with it. Like many Americans, I was enthralled by the PBS Civil War series of some years back. Prior to that, I had exposure to the history of the period in a college class or two. Back then, the revisionist view of the War held that the hostilities stemmed predominantly from economic causes. McPherson's tome, which manages, adeptly, to be both readable and scholarly, reveals how complex this War and its causes were.

If you expect to join the battle within the first chapter or two, be forewarned. McPherson devotes considerable space to the lead up to the conflict. If one is patient, one will end up savoring McPherson's careful exposition of the events and circumstances of the first half of the nineteenth century that resulted in this horrific conflict. One learns that, yes, economic circumstances played a role, as did slavery from various angles (economic, sociological, social justice, etc.), the desire to preserve the Union, and the desire to preserve a way of life. One learns as the book progresses that the causes were not constant, nor were they pure; Lincoln seems a lot more real once one recognizes that his attitudes towards abolition, freedom, and black suffrage were nuanced, were not completely principled, and were affected by events.

I particularly enjoyed the brief treatment of the war at sea--not an aspect of the conflict that seems to get a lot of popular attention, aside from the armored ships. The battles, at land and on sea, were depicted with an economy of words; McPherson's narratives manage to be to the point and clear, and often moving. And it is fascinating to read how close the Republicans came to losing the election of 1864.

Like at least one other reviewer, I noted with alarm the pages dwindle before the war really seemed to be over. Lincoln's assassination is only briefly mentioned, and the reconstruction is left for another volume of the Oxford series. However that may be, this reader yearned for some discussion of the more immediate aftermath of the events described, and of the fate of more than one or two of the key players in the War.

But it should be a compliment to the author that after some 860-someodd pages the reader still wants more. Buy this book!

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Standard in Civil War Research, May 30 2004
This review is from: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Era of the Civil War (Hardcover)
I am not one of the many "experts" on the Civil War. I am a novice on the subject. But I must say that I think it will be hard for me to find a single volume work on the Civil War that surpasses Battle Cry of Freedom. The author does a marvelous job of painting a picture of the nature of the war and the events that led up to it. This is not just a battle by battle account of the war. Rather it speaks of the battles and the political and social ramafications that those battles had. This book is award winning and does not need my written approval, but I just had to say something about. This book is a must read.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars My thoughts on Battle Cry of Freedom
This is the most boring book.. It will only be read by those younger than 40 through assignment or forced torture. *AHS* v

If I could give it a negative 500 stars... Read more

Published on Jul 18 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Bias and one sided
While the book contained a lot of good information, the data was greatly manipulated to suit the author's point of view. Read more
Published on May 17 2004 by x

5.0 out of 5 stars A great comprehensive history of the entire Civil War
If you are looking for a comprehensive single volume book on the Civil War (and pre and post Civil War) history this is simply a great book for you. Read more
Published on Jan 18 2004 by K-Wall

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Summary of US Civil War Publications
This is undoubtably the best one-volume work available reagarding the US Civil War. From the Mexican-American War to the US Civil War's end in 1865, James McPherson compiles... Read more
Published on Oct 3 2003 by J. Urban

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal.
This fine work is simply the best single volume history on the American Civil War ever written. Complete, thorough and very readable, this scholarly yet practical history is the... Read more
Published on Sep 21 2003 by Michael E. Fitzgerald

5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative account of Civil War era
James McPherson has done an excellent job of condensing a very complicated (and controversial) era of U.S. history into a single volume. Read more
Published on Sep 10 2003 by Travel & Tech

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Civil War book to own
James McPherson is Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. He has written more than eight other books on the Civil
War era including The Struggle for... Read more
Published on Sep 9 2003 by Marquis G. Witt

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets
This book will be the standard one-volume history on the war for many years to come. If I were teaching a college class on the Civil War and its causes, this would be my textbook.
Published on Aug 10 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading
Fortunately and unfortunately this was the first Civil War book that I read. I was fortunate in that it is a well written historical study of the Civil War and the political... Read more
Published on Jul 31 2003 by Ed Robbins

2.0 out of 5 stars Fatally Flawed
Don't let the Pulitzer Prize and the Princeton credentials dazzle: this book has a fatal weakness. McPherson shows flashes of brilliance in his thinking and his writing. Read more
Published on Jul 28 2003 by John Bauer

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